Wigan Athletic 1 v Birmingham City 0 & Birmingham City 2 v Middlesbrough 1 - EFL Championship

Birmingham City FC... as seen on TV!

It's official, Blues are 'big time', the new box office darlings of pay-per-view telly, after having appeared live on Sky, for the second time in four days tonight.

I wonder just how many new subscribers Sky have picked up, as a consequence of having over-indulged the nation with their saturation coverage of Pep Clotet's 'Jekyll and Hyde' side this week?

To be honest, anybody of a neutral persuasion, who happened to have inadvertently tuned into Tuesday night's load of garbage, would've gone out of their way to watch something completely different tonight instead. But that wasn't an option to those of us of a masochistic tendency, who watched both games, live and in the flesh (so to speak), by choice... and can I just say: Phew! I'm really glad that I wasn't one of those who missed this enthralling Blues performance against Middlesbrough.

Tuesday 1st October 2019
SkyBet EFL Championship
at the DW Stadium
Wigan Athletic (0) 1
Anthony Pilkington 76
Birmingham City (0) 0
Attendance: 9,244 (1,215 away)

Pep Clotet intimated after this dreary showing, that a 0-0 result would've been a good thing... and, if truth be told, it would appear that the opposition manager, Paul Cook would probably have snatched your hand off to grab the same final scoreline too, in a bid to edge his side away from the relegation berths, if he had been offered such a compromised result before the game actually got under way.... which in truth, it barely did all night.
Blues third defeat in a row, which coincided with what was only Wigan's third win of the season, came about, when second half substitute: Anthony Pilkington, who had only been on the pitch for seven minutes, was granted the freedom of Wigan, by the visitors defence, to run sideways in the final third of the pitch, before hitting a long range, speculative shot, that saw the wet ball slip from Lee Camp's grasp and end up in his goal.

Camp had saved two decent Latics chances during the first half, but was definitely at fault for the only goal of the game. However, Clotet's negative tactics and Blues lack of penetration in front of David Marshall's goal, were two other major contributory failings, that were also to blame for Birmingham's downfall tonight, just as much as, if not more than, their keepers solitary mistake.
Blues didn't muster a single effort on target, to test Marshall, who was only troubled by the ball once all night... and that was when a visiting fan threw the ball back to/at him, from the seats in the away end.
I'm excessively glad, that I hadn't recorded this game so that I could watch it again when I got home.
"But what if you missed anything, that you could have used for your blog?", asked Mrs W, upon my return... Trust me. I didn't!
FT: Wigan Athletic 1 v Birmingham City 0

Friday 4th October 2019
SkyBet EFL Championship
at St. Andrew's Stadium
Birmingham City (1) 2
Fran Villalba 33, Odin Bailey 89
Middlesbrough (0) 1
Dani Ayala 87
Attendance: 19,703 (inc. 789 away fans).

A combination of an inspired display by the 'Boro (and former Blues) keeper Darren Randolph and the framework of the the visitors goal, came close to denying Blues a thoroughly deserved win, on a night when Pep Clotet's side cast off the shackles of Tuesday night's lacklustre showing at Wigan, and put in their best performance of the season so far.
Had Dani Ayala's late equaliser have given the visitors a point, I would have had to phone the West Midlands Police to ask them to arrest him for having committed a blatant robbery, in front of 19,703 eye witnesses... and believe me, that lot don't need much of an excuse to feel the collar of just about anyone, if it takes their fancy to do so, on a match day at St. Andrew's.

Will the real Birmingham City please stand up (please stand up, please stand up), and while you're about it, let it be the one that dismantled their visitors from Teesside for the majority of tonight's game, before requiring a dramatic finale to finish a job off that really ought to have been done and dusted ages.
In all, Blues had 26 (twenty six) goal scoring opportunities, as they swamped 'Boro with wave upon wave of attacks, like a Tsunami of crashing royal blue breakers and tidal waves.
How about that for a bit of superlative poetry, eh!?
But as the game headed into the final five minutes, only Fran Villalba's crisp strike, in the thirty third minute, still separated the two sides.

And while Blues remained just that solitary goal in front, there was always the risk that the visitors might, err... make that inevitably steal a late equaliser.... and guess what? Britt Assombalonga swung over a cross into Camp's six yard box and the ball ended up in the back of the net, off of Dani Ayala's chest. Spawny as hell... but they all count.

But the hosts refused to be deflated, or let their heads drop, and in the final minute, Dan Crowley hooked a shot towards Randolph's back post, that seventeen year old substitute, Odin Bailey, had timed his run perfectly to meet... and he cushioned a header past the exasperated Boro' keeper, to give his side a richly deserved win and three points.

FT: Birmingham City 2 v Middlesbrough 1

Because of the international break, neither of these sides will now play again until Saturday 19th October, when they both face tricky opponents, as Blues head north to Elland Road, where they'll play Leeds United, while Middlesbrough welcome Slaven Bilić's West Bromwich Albion to their Riverside Stadium. I wonder what odds I get on two away wins that day, based on tonight's form ;-)

Apologies for there not being any match photos, to break up this laborious, monotonous and long winded tome, pertaining to both Tuesday and Friday night's Birmingham City games.
The filter on my cheap camera has an aversion to Championship standard floodlighting.
I didn't buy either of the match day badges depicted above, they're not my kind of thing at all, but at least they make for half decent, cut and pasted text breaks, if nothing else.